I dart a glance between them, studying the similar slant to their eyes and the width of their noses. The resemblance is there for sure, but there are differences, too.
Where Ari’s hair is teal, Kane’s is pale pink, the color of strawberry frosting. His eyes are navy, and his shoulders are not quite as broad. The trident peeking behind his shoulders is silver, offsetting the slightly darker shade of his skin.
Kane is beautiful, but not nearly as beautiful as Ari.
“Ouch,” Kane says, his features pinching in offense. “Thanks, Kala.”
Kala? Is that an insult here?
I immediately slam my barrier shut once again, a bit embarrassed that I let it down so soon after Ari’s instruction. Fortunately, Kane moves on quickly.
“I see you’re breathing just fine, which shouldn’t be possible, but let’s not all pretend we don’t know who you are.” He gives Ari a knowing glance. “I told you she was faking it.”
I am used to being talked about as though I’m not in the room. Mother does it. Her guards and servants are not allowed to directly interact with me. But they probably wouldn’t, even if they could, since I can’t respond in a way they understand.
It doesn’t get less frustrating, though, especially here in this one place where I finally have a voice. Especially when he’s the one who kidnapped me.
“Shehas a name,” I think at him. “And it isn’t Kala. I hardly had time to devise schemes between the time I was standing on the shoreline and when you pulled me into the water.”
I wouldn’t have anyway. I am not my mother, and I never will be. But I don’t bother to explain that because if he didn’t believe the thoughts he overheard when I was drowning, he sure as stars isn’t going to believe me now. Glancing back at me, he tosses—or rather aggressivelyfloatsa lump of fabric in my direction. I reach out on instinct to grab hold of it, looking at him in question.
“Not then, perhaps,” Kane says, crossing his arms over his broad chest. The tattoos on his shoulder and pectoral muscles tighten under the strain. “But our kidnapping victims don’t normally stand out by the water at night. I took advantage at the time, but it does seem awfully convenient.”
I want to ask how many kidnapping victims they’ve had, but I’m not certain I want the answer to that question.
“I assumed that’s why you lured me there.” I think back to the song that had pulled me to the water, how it didn’t stop until I hit the shoreline.
“No one lured you—” Kane cuts off, horror dawning on his features.
His entire demeanor alters as he stares at his cousin, Ari giving him a warning look before the former squeezes his eyes shut. I can’t help but find it frustrating, this silent exchange, especially when I’m still struggling to keep my thoughts hidden. When I’m still desperate for answers.
Though I’m beginning to suspect Kane doesn’t have those either.
But Ari does.
“Well, you won’t be needing these now,” Kane says, reaching toward the bundle he had given me to take it back. “We’ll be taking you back where you belong.”
My grip around it tightens, anxiety swimming through my veins.Back to where I belong? Delphine?
My pulse quickens, my eyes scanning Ari’s sea green gaze for answers to questions I haven’t even begun to ask. I should be relieved. My life might not have been perfect, but at least it made sense. I knew who I was.
Now everything is uncertain, unstable, like I’m standing on a bridge while it crumbles beneath me.
I shouldn’t want to stay here, least of all with the men who kidnapped me. But wasn’t I captive at the chateau, too? Helpless and alone while my sisters were forced to run headfirst into danger night after night, to give away pieces of themselves while nothing was ever asked of me.
Until she promised me to Damian.
I couldn’t help anyone there—not myself and not them.
That’s not what’s keeping me from wanting to return, though. The song that lured me here might be gone, but I have an idea of who it belonged to, now. The same man I saw in my dreams, that I feel an undeniable pull to.
More than a pull, the idea of leaving him is propelling me into a full-blown panic. I’m so unaccustomed to the feeling that I barely recognize it when it comes on. I don’t panic, ever. Not when I was trapped alone in my bedroom without so much as a voice to scream. Not when Mother promised my body and my life to a sadist. Not even when I was taken into the sea to begin with.
But it’s here now, undeniable and so intense that it’s blinding. Stars line my vision, and if my lungs were still working, they would be struggling to take in air.
Ari steps between his cousin and me, putting a hand on my shoulder in a gesture so reflexive, I’m not even sure he notices it. But Kane certainly does, tracking the movement with narrowed eyes.
“Peace, Kala,” Ari says to me before turning to the other Mayima. “We can’t take her back now thatheknows where she is.”